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Clinical Cancer Research Vol. 12, 4702-4713, August 1, 2006
© 2006 American Association for Cancer Research

Cancer Therapy: Preclinical

Minicircle-IFN{gamma} Induces Antiproliferative and Antitumoral Effects in Human Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Jiangxue Wu1, Xia Xiao1, Peng Zhao1, Gang Xue2, Yinghui Zhu1, Xiaofeng Zhu1, Limin Zheng1, Yixin Zeng1 and Wenlin Huang1,3

Authors' Affiliations: 1 State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, PR China; 2 Department of Endorinology, Chengdu Army General Hospital, Chengdu, PR China; and 3 Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, PR China

Requests for reprints: Wenlin Huang, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510060, PR China. Phone: 86-20-8734-3178; Fax: 86-20-8734-3146; E-mail: wl_huang{at}hotmail.com.


   Abstract
Top
 Abstract
Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Purpose: The aims of this work were to investigate the antitumor effect of IFN{gamma} gene transfer on human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to assess the potential of minicircle vector for antitumor gene therapy.

Experimental Design: We developed a recombinant minicircle vector carrying the human IFN{gamma} gene and evaluated the effects of minicircle-mediated IFN{gamma} gene transfer on NPC cell lines in vitro and on xenografts in vivo.

Results: Relative to p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, minicircle-mediated IFN{gamma} gene transfer in vitro resulted in 19- to 102-fold greater IFN{gamma} expression levels in transfected cells (293, NIH 3T3, CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1) and inhibited the growth of CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1 cells more efficiently, reducing relative growth rates to 7.1 ± 1.6%, 2.7 ± 1.0%, and 6.1 ± 1.6%, respectively. Flow cytometry and caspase-3 activity assays suggested that the antiproliferative effects of IFN{gamma} gene transfer on NPC cell lines could be attributed to G0-G1 arrest and apoptosis. Minicircle-mediated intratumoral IFN{gamma} expression in vivo was 11 to 14 times higher than p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} in CNE-2- and C666-1-xenografted mice and lasted for 21 days. Compared with p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} treatment, minicircle-IFN{gamma} treatment significantly increased survival and achieved inhibition rates of 77.5% and 83%, respectively.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that IFN{gamma} gene transfer exerts antiproliferative effects on NPC cells in vitro and leads to a profound antitumor effect in vivo. Minicircle-IFN{gamma} is more efficient than corresponding conventional plasmids due to its capability of mediating long-lasting high levels of IFN{gamma} gene expression. Therefore, minicircle-mediated IFN{gamma} gene transfer is a promising novel approach in the treatment of NPC.

IFN{gamma} is capable of potently inhibiting growth in a number of tumor models (1–5). The antiproliferative actions were attributed to direct actions of IFN{gamma} on tumor cells and indirect mechanisms, such as immunomodulation and antiangiogenesis (1–5). However, direct effects seem to be highly tissue and cell type specific (6, 7). Thus, elucidation of the mechanisms underlying the antitumor effects of IFN{gamma} on particular cancer cells is important for indicating which cancers may be susceptible to IFN{gamma} therapy (8–16).

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a major malignant disease of the head and neck region and is endemic to Southeast Asia and Mediterranean basin. NPC affects a predominantly young population and the current treatment regimen of radiation therapy, even combined with cisplatin chemotherapy, yields a 5-year survival rate of ~70% (17–23). Therefore, evaluation and development of novel therapeutic approaches are critical.

To assess the potential of IFN{gamma} in treating NPC, we carefully assessed the antitumor effects of IFN{gamma} on NPC in a representative panel of human NPC cell lines (CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1; ref. 24). The results show that r-hu-IFN{gamma} has direct antiproliferative effects on all NPC cell lines tested. However, the clinical application of recombinant IFN{gamma} was limited by the short half-life and the systemic side effects experienced by patients. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the antitumor activity of minicircle-mediated intratumoral IFN{gamma} gene transfer in the present study.

Minicircles are a novel form of supercoiled DNA molecule for nonviral gene transfer, which have neither bacterial origin of replication nor antibiotic resistance gene (25–30). They are generated in E. coli by site-specific recombination. Minicircles are superior to standard plasmid in terms of biosafety, improved gene transfer, and potential bioavailability (25, 26). The efficiency of gene transfer with minicircle vectors has been evaluated both in vitro in transformed primary cells and in vivo in liver, muscle, and experimental tumors (25–28). However, to date, minicircle vectors have never been applied in antitumor gene therapy.

In this study, we have developed a minicircle DNA vector carrying the IFN{gamma} gene. The results show that IFN{gamma} gene transfer exerts a profound antiproliferative effect on NPC cell lines by inducing G0-G1 phase arrest and apoptosis. Furthermore, intratumoral injections of minicircle-IFN{gamma} significantly inhibit the growth of NPC xenografts. Compared with corresponding conventional plasmids, the minicircle vector has greater potential for antitumor gene therapy for NPC due to its capability of mediating persistent high levels of IFN{gamma} gene expression.


   Materials and Methods
Top
 Abstract
 Materials and Methods
Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Reagents. Restriction enzymes and DNA Ligation Kit were purchased from Promega (Madison, WI) and Takara (Dalian, China). DNA ladder (1 kb Plus) was purchased from TianWei Technology Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China). Lipofectamine 2000 was obtained from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA). L-Arabinose was purchased from Sigma (St. Louis, MO). r-hu-IFN{gamma} (200 x 104 IU/vial) was obtained from Shanghai Clone Technology Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China). It was diluted in water and stored in aliquots at –70°C. The specific activity was 2 x 107 units/mg protein.

Plasmids and strains. Plasmid p2{Phi}C31 (9.7 kb) was a kind gift from Dr. Zhiying Chen (Stanford University, Stanford, CA). Plasmid pShuttle-IFN{gamma} (4.6 kb) carrying the human IFN{gamma} expression cassette was constructed by our lab. pSP72 was obtained from Promega. The E. coli strains DH 5{alpha} and Top 10 were purchased from Invitrogen.

Production and purification of minicircle-IFN{gamma}. Minicircle-IFN{gamma} was produced according to methods described by Chen et al. (30) with minor modifications. Overnight bacterial growth from a single colony of plasmid-transformed E. coli Top 10 in Tris-borate medium was centrifuged at 20°C, 4,000 rpm for 20 minutes. The pellet was resuspended 4:1 (v/v) in fresh Luria-Bertani broth containing 1.5% L-arabinose. The bacteria were incubated at 32°C with constant shaking at 250 rpm for 2 hours. After adding one-half volume of fresh Luria-Bertani broth (pH 8.0) containing 1% L-arabinose, the incubation temperature was increased to 37°C and the incubation continued for an additional 2 hours. Episomal DNA circles were prepared from bacteria using plasmid purification kits from Qiagen (Chatsworth, CA).

In vitro gene transfer. Five cell lines were studied: 293 (human embryonic kidney cell line), NIH 3T3 (murine fibroblast cell line), CNE-1 (well-differentiated NPC cell line, EBV negative), CNE-2 (poorly-differentiated NPC cell line, EBV negative), and C666-1 (undifferentiated NPC cell line, EBV positive). The doubling time of CNE-1 and CNE-2 was ~20 to 24 hours and that of C666-1 was ~3.5 days (21–24). Experiments were carried out in the log phase of growth. Cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 containing 100 units/mL penicillin, 100 µg/mL streptomycin, and 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco, Paisley, United Kingdom) at 37°C in a 5% CO2 humidified atmosphere. C666-1 is a kind gift from Dr. Saiwah Tsao (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PR China). 293, NIH 3T3, CNE-1, CNE-2, and WISH cell lines were kept by this lab.

For transfection, confluent cells were treated with trypsin and seeded into 24-well microtiter plates in 1 mL of 10% fetal bovine serum-RPMI 1640. Cells were transfected 18 hours after seeding for 293, NIH 3T3, CNE-1, and CNE-2, and 72 hours for C666-1 at 50% to 60% confluence. Transfection was conducted according to the instruction of the manufacturer (Lipofectamine 2000, Invitrogen). Cells were then incubated for varying lengths of time.

IFN{gamma} production by minicircle-IFN{gamma} transfected cell lines. The concentration of IFN{gamma} in the culture supernatant of transfected cell lines was measured with a human IFN{gamma} ELISA kit (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) according to the recommendations of the manufacturer.

Activity assay of IFN{gamma} produced by minicircle-IFN{gamma} transfected cell lines. The culture supernatant of NPC cells treated with minicircle-IFN{gamma} for 72 hours was collected and frozen (–70°C) for activity analysis. Activity of IFN{gamma} was measured according to the method described by Ahmed et al. (31) with minor modifications. The viability of WISH cells was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. r-hu-IFN{gamma} (20 IU/ng) produced by E. coli was used as standard.

WST assay. The nature of C666-1 cells precluded the use of clonogenic survival assay; therefore, WST assay was used to assess the effect of IFN{gamma} gene transfer on the growth of the NPC cell lines (21–24, 32). We transfected three different NPC cell lines with minicircle-IFN{gamma} and corresponding control plasmids. After the indicated incubation periods, cell viability was measured with Cell Counting Kit-8 (Dojindo Molecular Technologies, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD) according to the instruction of the manufacturer.

Flow cytometry. After treatment for the indicated time courses, adherent and detached cells were harvested and fixed overnight with 70% ethanol at 4°C, followed by resuspension in 500 µL of PBS. After addition of 10 µL RNase (10 mg/mL), cells were left for 30 minutes at 37°C and stained with 10 µL propidium iodide (1 mg/mL). Cellular DNA content was determined for at least 1 x 105 cells on a Coulter Epics Elite flow cytometer (Beckman-Coulter, Miami, FL). Cell cycle analysis was done with the Multicycle system (Phoenix Flow Systems, San Diego, CA).

Caspase-3 activity assay. Cells were plated in 15-cm dishes. Floating and adherent cells were harvested and combined for apoptosis assays. Caspase-3 activity was determined with Caspase-3 Cellular Activity Assay Kit (Calbiochem, La Jolla, CA).

Effect of minicircle-IFN{gamma} treatment on the growth of NPC xenografts. Female BALB/c nude mice (4-6 weeks old) were obtained from Shanghai Slike Experimental Animals Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China; animal experimental license no. SCXKhu2003-0008). After 1 week of adaptation, mice were inoculated s.c. in the scapular region with 2 x 106 CNE-2 cells or 1 x 107 C666-1 cells to generate tumors for the following experiments. When 30- to 40-mm3 tumors had formed, mice were randomly assigned to groups. For antitumor experiments, a total of 35 mice were used for either xenograft model (5 mice per group, 7 groups). Tumor tissues received injections of plasmids packaged with Lipofectamine for the experimental groups. Tumor volume (V) was measured and calculated according to the following formula: V = L x W2/2 (L, length; W, width). Tumors were resected at the end point and frozen (–70°C) for analysis. For intratumoral expression analysis, mice were treated with minicircle-IFN{gamma} or p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}. There were 60 mice in total, which were divided into four groups. Three mice for each time point (days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21) were tested. Tumors were resected at indicated day and frozen (–70°C) for analysis. For survival studies, there were 10 mice in each group. Seven treatment groups were included for either xenograft model. Animals either were found dead or were sacrificed when tumors were observed by palpation to approach 10% body weight or individual animals seemed to be stressed by weight loss, ruffled fur, and/or lethargy. All the animal experiments were conducted in accordance with Guidelines for the Welfare of Animals in Experimental Neoplasia.

RNA preparation and reverse transcription-PCR. Total RNA was prepared using Micro-to-Midi Total RNA Purification System (Invitrogen) according to the instruction of the manufacturer. RNA was submitted to DNase digestion and aliquots of 1 µg were used for reverse transcription with Reverse Transcription System (Promega). PCR reactions were done using the following primers: mouse ß-actin, sense 5'-GTGGGCCGCTCTAGGCACCA-3' and antisense 5'-CGGTTGGCCTTAGGGTTCAGGGGGG-3'; human IFN{gamma}, sense 5'-CCCTCTAGATGTTACTGCCAGGACCCATA-3' and antisense 5'-CCCGCGGCCGCTTACTGGGATGCTCTTCGAC-3'. Cycle conditions for all PCR reactions were 1 minute at 95°C, 1 minute at 55°C, and 1 minute at 72°C for 30 cycles. The size of expected PCR products was 250 bp for ß-actin and 460 bp for IFN{gamma}. As confirmed by our lab, a 350-bp product for ß-actin will emerge if there was any DNA contamination.

IFN{gamma} production by minicircle-IFN{gamma} transfected tumor tissues. Frozen samples were ground in 1x TBS (25 mmol/L Tris, 138 mmol/L NaCl, and 3 mmol/L KCl, pH 7.4) and centrifuged at 8,000 x g for 1 minute. The supernatants were used for analysis. IFN{gamma} levels were determined with a human IFN{gamma} ELISA kit (R&D Systems) according to the recommendation of the manufacturer.

Statistical analysis. Results were evaluated using t test with SPSS 11.0 software (SSPS, Inc., Chicago, IL), unless otherwise specified. Results of survival were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.


   Results
Top
 Abstract
 Materials and Methods
 Results
Discussion
 References
 
Construction of p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}. Plasmid pShuttle-IFN{gamma} carried the human IFN{gamma} gene expression cassette (Fig. 1A ). This construct (4.6 kb) has the following components: the pUC origin of replication, a kanamycin resistance gene, the IFN{gamma} gene under the control of immediate-early human cytomegalovirus promoter, and a bovine growth hormone gene polyadenylation signal (Fig. 1A).


Figure 1
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  		Fig. 1. Construction of p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} and production of minicircle-IFN{gamma}. A, restriction map of pShuttle-IFN{gamma}. PCMV, immediate-early human cytomegalovirus enhancer/promoter; IFN{gamma}, human {gamma} interferon gene; poly A, bovine growth factor polyadenylation signal; Kan, kanamycin resistance gene; ori, pUC origin of DNA replication. B, flow chart of {Phi}C31 integrase–mediated intramolecular recombination of p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}. The resulting product is minicircle-IFN{gamma}. Amp, ampicillin resistance gene; BAD, araBAD promoter; araC, araC repressor; attB, bacterial attachment site; attP, phage attachment site; attR, right hybrid sequence; I-SceIg, I-Sce I gene. C, analysis of minicircle DNA. M, 1 kb plus DNA ladder, bands of 10, 8, 5, 2, 1.6, 1, and 0.7 kb. All lanes were loaded with 0.3 µg of DNA. Lane 1, p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}; lane 2, p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}/SpeI; lane 3, minicircle-IFN{gamma}; lane 4, minicircle-IFN{gamma}/SpeI.

 
To prepare the human IFN{gamma} minicircle-producing construct p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} (Fig. 1B), we inserted the 1.6-kb MfeI-PCMV/IFN{gamma}/poly(A)-EcoRI fragment from pShuttle-IFN{gamma} into the EcoRI site of pCI, resulting in an intermediate plasmid, pCI-IFN{gamma} (data not shown). The parent plasmid p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} (11.3 kb) was created by insertion of the 1.6-kb SalI-PCMV/IFN{gamma}/poly(A)-XhoI fragment of pCI-IFN{gamma} into the XhoI site of p2{Phi}C31 (9.7 kb). All constructs were confirmed by DNA sequencing.

Production and purification of minicircle-IFN{gamma}. Minicircle-IFN{gamma} (1.6 kb) was produced and purified (Fig. 1B). Parent plasmid p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} and the recombinant product minicircle-IFN{gamma} were shown in lanes 1 and 3, respectively (Fig. 1C). The purity of minicircle-IFN{gamma} was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis (Fig. 1C). Weak p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} band and bacterial backbone contamination were barely detectable in lanes 3 and 4. Integrated density analysis revealed that the purity was 96%. We also examined the quality of the resulting minicircle-IFN{gamma} by comparing the agarose gel migration patterns of cut and uncut minicircle-IFN{gamma} (Fig. 1C). The results indicate that most of the minicircle-IFN{gamma} were supercoiled with small amounts of nicked form, linear form, and dimer.

IFN{gamma} production by transfected cell lines. Comparative tests were done to investigate the efficiency of the minicircle DNA vector. We compared minicircle-IFN{gamma} with its parent plasmid p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, as well as with the origin plasmid from which p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} was derived (pShuttle-IFN{gamma}), all of which contained an IFN{gamma} expression cassette driven by a cytomegalovirus promoter (Fig. 1).

293 cells, NIH 3T3 cells, and three NPC cell lines were transfected according to the regimen shown in Table 1A (27). The culture supernatant of each treatment was collected to investigate the cumulative production of IFN{gamma} over the indicated time course. The expression profile of IFN{gamma} in 293 cells was shown in Fig. 2A . No IFN{gamma} was found in the culture medium from p2{Phi}C31- or pSP72-transfected 293 cells (data not shown).


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  		Table 1. Treatment regimens for in vitro and in vivo transfections

 

Figure 2
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  		Fig. 2. Expression profiles of IFN{gamma} in the supernatant of cells transfected with plasmids carrying human IFN{gamma} expression cassette. Transfections were done with the same amount of total DNA and same molarities of IFN{gamma}-cassette with or without stuffer DNA. A to C, columns, mean of three independent experiments, each conducted in triplicate; bars, SE. *, P < 0.05, compared with p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}–treated group.

 
As shown in Table 1A, cells treated with minicircle-IFN{gamma} were divided into three groups: mc-A group (treatment of weight:weight), mc-B group (treatment of mole:mole with stuffer DNA), and mc-C group (mole:mole without stuffer DNA treatment). Compared with p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} group, equal weights of DNA and equal amounts of Lipofectamine were used in mc-A group. For mc-B group, equal numbers of IFN{gamma} expression cassettes and same amount of Lipofectamine were used. For mc-C group, equal numbers of IFN{gamma} expression cassettes and same ratio of DNA to Lipofectamine were used.

The treatment of weight:weight (mc-A) compared equal weights of DNA from minicircle and parent plasmid (27). The amount of Lipofectamine was the same but the amount of IFN{gamma} expression cassette of minicircle was 6.1 times higher than in p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} and 1.9 times higher than in pShuttle-IFN{gamma}. Seventy-two hours after transfection, the yield of IFN{gamma} mediated by the minicircle was 20.6 times higher than in p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} and 8.3 times higher than in pShuttle-IFN{gamma} (Fig. 2A).

The treatment of mole:mole with stuffer DNA (mc-B) compared equal molar ratios of DNA from each construct (27). pSP72 was used as stuffer DNA to adjust the DNA amount of each well to 1 µg. Equal amounts of Lipofectamine were used to minimize variation in Lipofectamine-induced cytoxicity. In this treatment, the expression level in minicircle, 72 hours after transfection, was 5.4 times higher than in p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} and 1.7 times higher than in pShuttle-IFN{gamma} (Fig. 2A).

The mole:mole without stuffer DNA treatment (mc-C) allowed comparison of molar ratios of constructs with variable Lipofectamine quantities (27). The expression level of the mc-C group was significantly higher than that of the mc-A or mc-B group (Fig. 2A; P < 0.05). This effect is likely due to lower levels of Lipofectamine-induced cytoxicity in the mc-C group.

In all, IFN{gamma} expression in 293 cells mediated by minicircle was significantly higher than those in control plasmids (P < 0.05). Similar results were obtained in NIH 3T3 cells (Fig. 2B). In addition, with the exception of mc-C group, similar results were also obtained in all three NPC cell lines (Fig. 2C).

In contrast to 293 and NIH 3T3 cells, the expression levels of IFN{gamma} in the mc-C group of the three NPC cells were between those of mc-A group and mc-B group (Fig. 2C). The data indicate that NPC cells were less sensitive to Lipofectamine-induced cytoxicity than 293 and NIH 3T3 cells.

Antiproliferative effects of IFN{gamma} gene transfer on human NPC cell lines. We previously investigated the antiproliferative activity of r-hu-IFN{gamma} in three EBV-positive or EBV-negative NPC cell lines (CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1). The results suggested that IFN{gamma} treatment significantly inhibited the growth of all NPC cell lines. The IC50 values of CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1 were 12.9, 43.9, and 167.3 IU/mL, respectively, after being treated with r-hu-IFN{gamma} for 72 hours. Concerned about the limitation of the recombinant protein in clinical application, in the present study, we sought to assess the potential of IFN{gamma} gene therapy on NPC.

To evaluate the efficiency of gene transfer and the capability of the NPC cells to produce the transgene, we investigated cumulative IFN{gamma} production over the indicated time course (Fig. 2C). The activity of IFN{gamma} produced by transfected CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1 was also determined, which was 27.9, 46.7, and 33.1 IU/ng, respectively. Therefore, all NPC cell lines transfected with minicircle-IFN{gamma} produced amounts of IFN{gamma} greater than their IC50.

Furthermore, to examine whether IFN{gamma} gene transfer has the same effect on the growth of the NPC cell lines, CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1 were transfected with minicircle-IFN{gamma} and control plasmids according to the regimen shown in Table 1A. WST assays were conducted after one to three doubling time. No significant differences between the growth of p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine– or Lipofectamine-treated group and untreated group were observed (data not shown). Consistent with our observations from r-hu-IFN{gamma} treatment, growth inhibition was notably absent during the first day after transfection (data not shown) but became apparent on day 2 for CNE-1 and CNE-2 and on day 3 for the slower-growing C666-1 (Fig. 3 ). Although both of the plasmids carried the same IFN{gamma} cassette and inhibited the growth of cells significantly (P < 0.04), minicircle showed more profound effects than the parent plasmid (P < 0.006). For example, 48 hours after transfection, the cell viability of CNE-2 in mc-A group was reduced to 51.0 ± 1.8%, compared with 83.0 ± 2.6% of p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} group (Fig. 3B). Additionally, the relative growth rates of these two groups were further decreased to 2.7 ± 1.0% versus 22.9 ± 1.4%, respectively, 72 hours after transfection (Fig. 3B).


Figure 3
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  		Fig. 3. IFN{gamma} gene transfer inhibits in vitro growth of human NPC cells. Cells were treated with minicircle-IFN{gamma} and control plasmids for the indicated time periods. Cell viability was determined by WST assay. Data are given as relative growth rates compared with p2{Phi}C31-treated group. A to C, columns, mean of three independent experiments, each conducted in triplicate; bars, SE. *, P < 0.05, compared with p2{Phi}C31-treated group. D, r-hu-IFN{gamma} inhibits in vitro growth of CNE-1 cell line. Cells were treated with r-hu-IFN{gamma} at doses ranging from 10 to 40,000 IU/mL for indicated time periods. Points, mean of three independent experiments, each conducted in triplicate; bars, SE. *, P < 0.05, compared with cells treated with medium alone.

 
Although the IFN{gamma} expressions of pShuttle-IFN{gamma}, mc-A, and mc-B groups were significantly different (Fig. 2C; P < 0.008), all groups exerted similar effects on the growth of CNE-1 and CNE-2 cells by 72 hours (Fig. 3A and B; P > 0.05). This was likely due to the dose-dependent inhibitory effects of IFN{gamma} treatment on NPC cell lines. As shown in Fig. 3D, r-hu-IFN{gamma} treatment inhibited the growth of CNE-1 in a dose-dependent manner, which showed a sigmoidal dose-response curve, and the maximal inhibition was achieved at doses below the highest dose tested. A similar result was obtained in CNE-2 cell line (data not shown). Therefore, the yield of IFN{gamma} in pShuttle-IFN{gamma} and mc-B groups was high enough to achieve antiproliferative effects similar to that in mc-A group.

In contrast to NPC cell lines, no growth inhibitory effect was observed in 293 and NIH 3T3 cells treated with IFN{gamma} gene transfer (data not shown). We also tested a human hepatocarcinoma cell line (HepG2) and a human colon carcinoma cell line (Lovo) in this work. No significant antiproliferative effect was observed in these two cell lines, although they achieved similar expression levels of IFN{gamma} with NPC cell lines (data not shown).

IFN{gamma} gene transfer induces cell cycle arrest in NPC cell lines. NPC cell lines were transfected with minicircle-IFN{gamma} as the method described above and cells were collected at indicated time points. The cell cycle phase distribution was evaluated by flow cytometric analysis. The results revealed that IFN{gamma} gene transfer arrested NPC cells in the G0-G1 phase of the cell cycle (Fig. 4A and B ). A significant increase of cells in G0-G1 phase could be detected in CNE-1 and C666-1 by 24 hours and in CNE-2 by 48 hours (P < 0.02). For example, 67.6% of CNE-1 cells accumulated in the G0-G1 phase 24 hours after transfection, in contrast to 51.5% for p2{Phi}C31-transfected cells (Fig. 4A). This was associated with corresponding decreases in proportion of cells in S phase (from 30.2% to 19.4%) and G2-M phase (from 18.4% to 13%; Fig. 4A). Similar alterations, but to a lesser extent, were observed in the other two NPC cell lines (Fig. 4A and B). The effects of IFN{gamma} gene transfer on cell cycle phase distribution were consistent with that observed with r-hu-IFN{gamma} treatment (data not shown).


Figure 4
Figure 4
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  		Fig. 4. IFN{gamma} gene transfer exerts antiproliferative effects on NPC cells by inducing G0-G1 arrest and apoptosis. A and B, cell cycle phase distribution of minicircle-IFN{gamma}–treated NPC cell lines. Three NPC cell lines were transfected with minicircle-IFN{gamma} and the cell cycle phase distribution of each cell lines was analyzed at the indicated time. A, data from representative flow cytometry experiments at indicated time point after transfection. Ctrl, p2{Phi}C31-treated group; mc, minicircle-IFN{gamma} treated group. B, graphical representation of the mean total population in each stage of the cell cycle. Columns, mean of three independent experiments; bars, SD. *, P < 0.05, compared with p2{Phi}C31-treated group. C, graphical representation of the percentage population in pre-G1 phase from a representative experiment. D, caspase-3 activity induced by IFN{gamma} gene transfer. Columns, mean of three independent experiments; bars, SD. *, P < 0.05, compared with p2{Phi}C31-treated group.

 
IFN{gamma} gene transfer induces apoptosis in NPC cell lines. Flow cytometry analysis revealed an increased percentage of cells with subdiploid DNA content at 48 and 72 hours (Fig. 4C), suggesting an induction of apoptosis. For example, 72 hours after treatment, the percentage of CNE-1 cells in pre-G1 peak was 33.8%, as compared with 4% of the control group. Similar results were obtained from CNE-2 and C666-1 (Fig. 4C).

As the pre-G1 peak did not provide conclusive evidence of apoptosis, we investigated IFN{gamma}-induced activation of caspase-3 to evaluate whether an induction of apoptosis contributed to the antiproliferative effects of IFN{gamma}. The caspase-3 activity assay revealed a significant increase of activity by 48 hours for the three cell lines (P < 0.03). Moreover, there was further induction of the caspase-3 activity by 72 hours, which strongly suggests an involvement of apoptosis in the antiproliferative effects of IFN{gamma} gene transfer (Fig. 4D).

IFN{gamma} gene transfer inhibits the growth of human NPC xenografts. Because the majority of NPC biopsies belong to undifferentiated cell type, C666-1 and CNE-2 were focused on for in vivo antitumor study (21–24).

CNE-2 cell– and C666-1 cell–xenografted mice were treated for 3 weeks, according to the regimen shown in Table 1B. The first three groups shown in Table 1B were treated as negative controls and the r-hu-IFN{gamma} group was treated as a positive control. For the IFN{gamma} gene treatment, in vivo transfections were done with the same amount of total DNA and the same molarities of IFN{gamma}-cassette with stuffer DNA (Table 1B).

The experiments were conducted twice. Results of representative experiments were presented. The time-dependent evolution of tumor volume in mice inoculated with CNE-2 and C666-1 cells is shown in Fig. 5A . The results indicated that the sizes of tumors treated with IFN{gamma} gene therapy or r-hu-IFN{gamma} were significantly decreased compared with control groups (P < 0.05). No significant differences in the size of three negative control groups were observed (P > 0.05).


Figure 5
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  		Fig. 5. Antitumor effect of IFN{gamma} gene transfer on growth of NPC xenografts. A, time-dependent evolution of tumor volume in mice inoculated with the CNE-2 and C666-1 cell lines (n = 5). For CNE-2 cell–xenografted mice, mc-A versus p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine, P < 0.05 at days 5, 9, 13, 17, and 21; mc-B versus p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine, P < 0.05 at days 17 and 21; p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} versus p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine, P < 0.05 at days 17 and 21; r-hu-IFN{gamma} versus 0.9% NaCl, P < 0.05 at days 13, 17, and 21. For C666-1 cell–xenografted mice, mc-A versus p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine, P < 0.05 at days 11, 16, and 21; mc-B versus p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine, P < 0.05 at days 16 and 21; p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} versus p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine, P < 0.05 at day 21; r-hu-IFN{gamma} versus 0.9% NaCl, P < 0.05 at days 16 and 21. B, antitumor effect of IFN{gamma} gene therapy on CNE-2 cell–xenografted and C666-1 cell–xenografted nude mice (n = 5). Mice were sacrificed after 3 weeks of treatment and tumors were resected and weighted. Columns, mean of five mice; bars SD. *, P < 0.05, compared with p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine–treated group. C, expression profiles of IFN{gamma} and reverse transcription-PCR analysis of IFN{gamma} transcripts in the tumor tissue transfected with minicircle-IFN{gamma} and p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}. For expression profiles of IFN{gamma}, results are given in nanograms per 100 mg of tumor tissue. Columns, mean of three mice; bars, SD. For reverse transcription-PCR analysis of IFN{gamma} transcripts, results from representative experiments were shown. ß-Actin was used as loading control. {Phi}, p2{Phi}C31 group, 1 day after injection; b, blank control. D, effect of IFN{gamma} gene transfer on survival (n = 10). For CNE-2 cell–xenografted mice, mc-A versus p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.0001; mc-B versus p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.02; mc-A versus r-hu-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.0001; mc-B versus r-hu-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.0001; p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} versus r-hu-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.007. For C666-1 cell–xenografted mice, mc-A versus p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.0001; mc-B versus p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.0001; mc-A versus r-hu-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.0001; mc-B versus r-hu-IFN{gamma}, P < 0.0002; p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} versus r-hu-IFN{gamma}, P > 0.05 (Kaplan-Meier).

 
The inhibition rate of the treated group was determined according to tumor weight (Fig. 5B) and the growth of tumors after IFN{gamma} gene therapy or r-hu-IFN{gamma} treatment was significantly slower those of the control groups (P < 0.05). In the CNE-2 cell–xenografted models, the inhibition rates of mc-A, mc-B, p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, and r-hu-IFN{gamma} groups were 77.5%, 50.7%, 32.4%, and 43.7%, respectively. For the C666-1 cell–xenografted models, the corresponding inhibition rates were 83%, 75.5%, 58.5%, and 64.2%, respectively. In both models, the mc-A group showed more profound antitumor potential than the parent plasmid–treated group (P < 0.004; Fig. 5B). No significant differences in the weight of three negative control groups were observed (P > 0.05).

Although p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} exerted slight antiproliferative effects on C666-1, an inhibition rate of 58.5% was achieved by intratumoral injection. This effect is likely due to the indirect antitumor, antiangiogenesis effect of IFN{gamma} because we have found that the microvessel densities of the treated tumors were significantly decreased compared with negative control groups (data not shown).

IFN{gamma} production by transfected tumor tissues. To compare the persistence of gene expression, expression of IFN{gamma} transcript and protein was evaluated on days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21 after single administration, respectively (Fig. 5C). Transfection was conducted with the same protocol as with the mc-A and p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} groups shown in Table 1B, except for the injection frequency. The treated mice just received one injection during 3 weeks.

The data suggest that minicircle-IFN{gamma} is capable of expressing persistent high (P < 0.05) levels of IFN{gamma} in vivo (Fig. 5C). For example, the expression level of mc-A group was 11 to 14 times higher than that of p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}–treated group in CNE-2- and C666-1-xenografted models 1 day after DNA injection (Fig. 5C). The expression of IFN{gamma} transcript and protein could be detected on day 21 in the mc-A group whereas they were barely detectable on day 7 and undetectable on day 14 in the p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} group (Fig. 5C). No IFN{gamma} transcript or protein was found in p2{Phi}C31-treated group or untreated tumors.

Mice received three doses (one dose per week for 3 weeks) were also tested in intratumoral expression experiments. Transfection was conducted with the same protocol as with the mc-A group shown in Table 1B. For CNE-2 cell–xenografted mice, the expression levels of IFN{gamma} in single-dose group and three-dose group were 1,197.7 ± 441 and 3,105.5 ± 535.3 ng/100 mg tumor tissue on day 14 (P > 0.05, one dose versus three doses). The corresponding expression levels were 617.3 ± 240.7 and 3,559.4 ± 686.8 ng/100 mg tumor tissue on day 21 (P < 0.04, one dose versus three doses). Tumor volumes were recorded to assess the antitumor effects of these two treatment groups. Results indicated that the sizes of tumors in both groups were significantly decreased on day 21 (P < 0.05). Compared with one-dose treatment, three-dose treatment achieved significantly high production of IFN{gamma} (P < 0.04) and better antitumor effect on day 21 (0.873 ± 0.119 versus 0.315 ± 0.068 cm3; P < 0.01, one dose versus three doses).

Similar results of intratumoral expression were obtained in C666-1 cell–xenografted mice. Mice in three-dose group achieved significantly high production of IFN{gamma} on day 21 (1,016.8 ± 427.9 versus 3,451.5 ± 600.8 ng; P < 0.01, one dose versus three doses). The sizes of tumors in both groups were significantly decreased on day 21 (P < 0.05). However, although the mean tumor volume in three-dose group was smaller than that in single-dose group, the difference was not significant (0.229 ± 0.046 versus 0.162 ± 0.045 cm3; P > 0.05, one dose versus three doses).

IFN{gamma} gene transfer increases the survival of human NPC–xenografted mice. The long-term outcome of IFN{gamma} gene transfer was evaluated by survival rates of mice with the same protocol shown in Table 1B. There was no additional treatment after 3 weeks of treatment. The experiments were conducted twice. Results of representative experiments were shown in Fig. 5D. For CNE-2 cell–xenografted mice, the median survival of p2{Phi}C31 + Lipofectamine, r-hu-IFN{gamma}, p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma}, mc-A, and mc-B groups was 32 ± 1.58, 38 ± 2.37, 50 ± 4.65, 76 ± 2.83, and 53 ± 3.69 days, respectively (Fig. 5D). For C666-1 cell–xenografted mice, the corresponding median survival was 38 ± 3.56, 47 ± 0.77, 47 ± 1.58, 77 ± 3.16, and 58 ± 2.32 days, respectively (Fig. 5D). In both models, no significant differences in the survival of three negative control groups were observed (P > 0.05, Kaplan-Meier; Fig. 5D). Survival durations were significantly longer after IFN{gamma} gene therapy or r-hu-IFN{gamma} treatment than in negative control groups (P < 0.0007, Kaplan-Meier; Fig. 5D). Furthermore, the mc-A group had the best survival duration (P < 0.0002, Kaplan-Meier; Fig. 5D).


   Discussion
Top
 Abstract
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
References
 
IFN{gamma} has been investigated as a potential therapy for many types of cancerous tumors, such as hairy cell leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, malignant melanoma, and ovarian cancer (1–5, 33–38). In the current study, we report for the first time that minicircle-mediated IFN{gamma} gene transfer has direct antiproliferative effects on human NPC cell lines and xenografts in nude mice.

Three NPC cell lines (CNE-1, CNE-2, and C666-1) were investigated in our study. As the latent form of EBV is constantly present in >80% of NPC patients, C666-1 is unique in the tested cell lines in that it has been shown to maintain EBV in long-term cultures (24). Despite the latent EBV product present in C666-1, the antiproliferative effect of IFN{gamma} gene therapy was as profound as that observed in EBV-negative cell lines. It is notable that C666-1 is a good tool for investigating interactions between EBV latent products and the IFN{gamma}-induced signal pathway.

The antiproliferative mechanisms by which IFN{gamma} exerts its effects seem to be cell type specific (6, 7, 10–16, 39–42). In pancreatic cancer cells, IFN{gamma} induces apoptosis (8), and in prostate cancer cells, it induces cell cycle arrest (9). Here we report that both G0-G1 phase arrest and apoptosis contributed to IFN{gamma}-mediated growth suppression in NPC cell lines. The G0-G1 phase arrest induced by IFN{gamma} gene transfer may be due to differential regulation of cell cycle–associated proteins that control the G1-S checkpoint (6). Moreover, IFN{gamma} can induce apoptosis through up-regulation of the expression of a number of apoptosis-related proteins, including tumor necrosis factor receptor, Fas, and other death receptors, as well as their respective ligands, several Bcl-2 family members, and caspases in different cell types (43–48). Elucidation of the underlying mechanisms will help to develop combinatorial strategies involving IFN{gamma} and other therapeutic agents (43–48).

As IFN{gamma} is a multifunctional cytokine, the mechanism by which it achieves antitumor effects is complicated. In the intact host, the actions of IFN{gamma} involve a combination of direct actions on tumor cells, inhibition of angiogenesis, and regulation of immunologic responses (1–5). It remains to be evaluated whether the two indirect actions are involved in the antitumor effect of IFN{gamma} gene therapy in NPC. Our observations from the antitumor experiments showed that microvessel densities in tumors treated with IFN{gamma} gene therapy were significantly decreased, which indicates that antiangiogenesis also contributes to IFN{gamma} antitumor activity. Studies reveal that an IFN{gamma} inducible protein, IP-10, functions as an inhibitor of angiogenesis and contributes to the antitumor effect of IFN{gamma} in vivo. IP-10 could be induced by IFN{gamma} in endothelial cells and exert potent antiangiogenesis activity by inhibiting endothelial cell differentiation (49, 50). However, being highly species specific, human IFN{gamma} should not have any direct effect on the murine vascular system. Therefore, the antiangiogenesis activity of IFN{gamma} expression may be explained by the down-regulation of angiogenic factors and/or up-regulation of antiangiogenic factors of NPC cells. Because human IFN{gamma} has no measurable activity in the nude mouse host (37), it seems that the immunomodulation of IFN{gamma} does not contribute to its antitumor effect. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that IFN{gamma} expression or administration of plasmid/liposome induces a nonspecific activation of the residual immune system of nude mice.

In addition to investigating the antitumor effects of IFN{gamma} gene transfer in NPC models, we also assessed the potential of the minicircle vector in antitumor gene therapy. The IFN{gamma} expression profiles mediated by minicircle and classic plasmids were compared both in vitro and in vivo. Consistent with Darquet et al.'s reports (25, 26), our data show that the minicircle is more efficient in mediating in vitro transgene expression than the commonly used plasmid pShuttle and much more efficient than the large plasmid p2{Phi}C31. The minicircle-IFN{gamma} consistently produced the highest expression when the same amount and molarity of DNA were used. The expression differences were partly cell dependent, with the largest difference being in the C666-1 cells.

Data about minicircle-mediated intratumoral gene expression are limited. There has only been one report that investigated this issue, and they found that intratumoral injection of the minicircle resulted in 13 to 50 times more gene expression than the parent plasmid or large plasmids when the same amount of DNA was used (26). Accordingly, we found that minicircle-IFN{gamma} achieved 11 to 14 times higher IFN{gamma} expression than p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} in CNE-2 or C666-1 xenografts. Darquet et al. (26) examined the activity of reporter genes 2 days after intratumoral transfection; however, the persistence of gene expression was not examined. In this study, we evaluated the persistence of transgene expression mediated by minicircle during 3 weeks after transfection. In the minicircle-treated group, IFN{gamma} could be detected in tumors until 21 days after transfection, compared with 7 days in the p2{Phi}C31-IFN{gamma} group. However, there was a progressive time-dependent reduction of IFN{gamma} levels even in the minicircle group.

In contrast to our observations, Chen et al. (28) reported that animals infused with minicircle-huFIX expressed a high level of human FIX serum that was maintained for up to 7 weeks. The main difference between their report and ours is the host cell (hepatocytes versus tumor cells). The persistence of transgene expression from the minicircle can be achieved in cells with a low cell turnover rate, such as hepatocyte and skeletal muscle cell (28). In our study, most of the transfected cells were tumor cells with a doubling time of 1 to 3 days. Either cell division during the treatment or cell death caused by IFN{gamma} will result in dilution of the nonreplicative minicircle vector and loss of transgene expression. The time-dependent reduction of IFN{gamma} levels was also observed in minicircle-IFN{gamma}–transfected C666-1 cells on day 6 (Fig. 2C). In addition to the dilution of the vector, the shorter persistence seen in our study could be due to the slowing down of the cell machinery resulting from IFN{gamma} treatment and the protease degradation in the culture medium (35). Although the persistence of transgene expression mediated by the minicircle in tumor tissue was not comparable to that achieved in liver tissue, the minicircle presents great potential in antitumor gene therapy, which is superior to conventional plasmid gene therapy and recombinant protein therapy.

IFN{gamma} gene therapy has not been applied to NPC. Our study reveals that IFN{gamma} gene transfer mediated by the minicircle vector is a promising novel approach for treatment of NPC. Further studies of the mechanism governing the effects of IFN{gamma} on the regulation of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis will be important for measuring its therapeutic potential and for determining the optimal conditions of minicircle-IFN{gamma} treatment for single or adjuvant therapy of human NPC.


   Acknowledgments
 
We thank Dr. Zhiying Chen (Stanford University, Stanford, CA) for his generous gift of p2{Phi}C31 and advice on this work; Dr. Qiang Liu (Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, PR China) for critical reading of the manuscript and comments; and Miss Yingjun Ji and Han Liu (Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, PR China) for helpful discussions and technical assistance.


   Footnotes
 
Grant support: National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) grant 2004CB518801, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation grant 2004036155, and the Key Research Grant of Guangdong Province grant 2003A10902.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Received 3/ 3/06; revised 5/ 9/06; accepted 5/19/06.


   References
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 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
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